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Comments

• [1] Joel Sachs from New York June 25, 2009 - 09:14PM

  The judgment about Henry Cowell offered by some of America's top psychiatrists and phsyiahctric students of homosexuality in the course of the well-known morals charge is that his behavior with men in the 1920s and earlier 1930s was not the result of homosexuality but of very badly social immaturity resulting from his mother's hostility to sexuality. They felt that his natural state was heterosexual. His wife told me that she thought he was to a small extent bi-sexual but that he never again was involved with men. Yet the myths persist. Nicholas Slonimsky said to me (while Mrs. Cowell was still alive), "Sidney Cowell lies about becoming pregnant with Henry. "We know [leer] that he couldn't do that." In fact, she did become pregnant, became extremely ill, and lost the baby because of incompatible Rh factor. [Documentation exists.] She told me with obvious honesty that Henry wanted five children. If Slonimsky, who knew the Cowells well, believed that, one can see the problem of correcting mythology.

  In any event, what is the point? Cowell was a composer. That is the only thing that counts. If we are going to lump together composers on the grounds of sexuality, why not on the grounds of height, or disabilities, or eye color. Just listen to the music, please.

  
  
• [2] miriam June 25, 2009 - 11:04PM

  I just turned on the radio, and when I heard the word "homophony" I thought you were using it as a musicological term meaning "same sound." There is such a term; here's how Britannica defines it:

  "musical texture based primarily on chords, in contrast to polyphony, which results from combinations of relatively independent melodies."

  Was that the kind of music you played tonight?